Fastening device for shoe-uppers.



T- F. WHELAN. FASTENING DEVIGE FOR SHOE UPPERS.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 21, 1907.

936,391 I Patented Oct. 12, 1909.

ANDREW, a. GRAMAII co. Pnmumemmas. WAsmNm'ou. D. c.

THOMAS FRANK WHELAN,

OF ST. LOUIS, IVIISSOURI, ASSIGNOR T ELLIS LACER COM- PANY, OFHAVERHILL, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MAINE.

FASTENING DEVICE FOR, SHOE-UPPERS.

Specification of Letters iatent.

Patented Oct. 12, 19-09.

Application filed December 21, 1907. Serial No. 407,450.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Trroams FRANK WHE- rnn, a citizen of the UnitedStates, and a resident of St. Louis, State of Missouri, have inventedcertain new and useful improvements in Fastening Devices for Shoe-Uppers, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to devices for temporarily securing together theeyeleted edges of the uppers of lace shoes during the lasting and otherprocesses, and is particularly intended to provide a simple andpractical lacer for this purpose which may be quickly and easily appliedto and detached from an upper, and will also be self-conforming to thecontour of the various lasts with which it may be used. To this end Ihave devised a lacer which is characterized by having two side portionsor members, one for each side of the upper, these members being hingedtogether along a longitudinal axis and provided on each side of thisaxis with eyelet-engaging devices, in combination with means foryieldingly holding said members in a predetermined angular rela tion toeach other so that although the eye let-engaging devices will be causedto hug closely against the sides of the last by the strain due to theprocess of lasting the shoe, they will assume their normal position whenreleased from strain. By preference the two side portions of my lacerare made from a single piece of wire which is looped at one end of thelacer to provide a spring whereby the side portions are normally held inthe predetermined position above referred to.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of a lacerembodying my invention and Fig. 2 is a cross section on the line mw inFig. l.

The lacer illustrated in the drawing has two similar side portions eachprovided with laterally extending fingers 2 which are con nected to oneanother at their inner ends by parallel portions 8, each of said fingers2 being provided with suitable eyelet-engaging means. In the particularconstruction illustrated the eyelet-engaging means consist of theshoulders 4, the arrangement and mode of operation of which are the sameas in what is known as the Ellis lacer. The two side portions of thelacer are preferably made from a single piece of wire which is doubledto form each of the fingers 2 and is also bent into a loop 5 at one endof the lacer in such a manner as to bring the corresponding connectingportions 3 adjacent to one another, with the fingers 2 ex tending inopposite directions therefrom as shown in Fig. i. The lacer may have anydesired number of the fingers 2, and its two side portions are hingedtogether as by means of a metallic clip 6 wrapped around adjacentconnecting portions 3, thereby preventing lateral separation of the sideportions but permitting them to turn on the longitudinal axis of thelacer. A clip as 6 may be wrapped around each pair of'adjacentconnecting portions 3 if desired, another such clip being shown indotted lines in Fig. l, and two or more such clips or equivalentconnections will ordinarily be desirable in case the side portions ofthe lacer are each provided with more than three of the fingers 2, inorder to prevent the lateral separation of the side portions at anypoint under the strain imposed by the process of lasting, but for athreefingered lacer such as is shown in the drawing the loop 5 may bemade to serve the same purpose at the corresponding end of the lacer. Inany case the flexibility of said loop will permit the fingers 2 and theedges of the upper in which the same are inserted to be drawn closelyagainst the last, while the elasticity of said loop will act to restoresaid fingers to their normal position when released, and also to holdthem in said position with sufficient firmness to enable the lacer to beinserted into or withdrawn from the eyelets of an upper much morequickly and easily than would be possible if the side portions of thelacer were merely hinged to ether and allowed to turn loosely on theirlongitudinal axis. The lacer above described also has a considerabledegree of flexibility in the direction of the length of its axis, afeature which has been found to be desirable in such devices, and isapplied to the upper and removed therefrom in substantially the samemanner as the Ellis lacer described in United States Letters Patent No.774,659, granted on the 8th day of November, 1904, on the application ofE. Ellis, to which reference may be made for a full description thereof.

I claim as my invention 1. A device of the character described,comprising two side portions inseparably hinged together along alongitudinal axis and provided respectively with eyelet-en gaging meansextending in opposite directions from said axis, and means yieldinglymaintaining said side portions in a predetermined angular relation.

2. A device of the character described, comprising two side portionsinseparably hinged together along a longitudinal axis, and providedrespectively with eyelet-engaging means, and a spring connecting saidside portions at one end of the latter and normally holding the same ina predetermined angular relation.

3. A device of the character described, comprising two side portionsformed from a single piece of wire and inseparably hinged together alonga longitudinal axis, said side portions being provided respectively witheyelet-engaging means and said wire being bent to form a spring loop atone end of the device. I

4. A device of the character described, comprising two side portionseach formed from a single piece of wire which is bent to providelaterally extending fingers connected at their inner ends, each fingerbeing provided with eyelet-engaging means, a metallic clip wrappedaround corresponding connecting portions and forming a hinge, and aspring loop connecting the two side portions and normally holding thesame in a predetermined angular relation.

5. A device of the character described, comprising two side portionsformed from a single piece of wire and connected at one end of thedevice by a spring loop formed in said wire, each of the side portionsbeing provided with laterally extending fingers formed from doubledportions of the wire and having eyeletengaging means, and means forinseparably hingin said side portions together at the inner ends ofcorresponding fingers.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my name thisseventeenth day of December, 1907.

THOMAS FRANK NHELAN.

lVitnesses CHAS. E. GAFFNEY, Jnssn XV. BARRETT.

